Life in the palace is dangerous, the young mice quickly learn. There's a cat on the premises, and he's "dirty, beastly, and bad". The mice take this information to heart but do not heed their parents' advice to "stay away". Instead they plot against Bartholomew. Life would be so much better without him, or so they think. But in carrying out their hostile campaign, the nine young mice put their own lives at peril. There's often little or no truth to the disparaging words that we hear said about others. Generalizations, especially those based upon race, religion, ethnicity, or economic status, lead us to exclude those who might otherwise become treasured friends. Bartholomew Cat demonstrates a more virtuous approach, ignoring traditional stereotypes (and even bad behavior) to come to the rescue of the mice in his lifeIshtar''s charming cat-and-mouse story is (ironically) a clever reminder of what it means to be human.